Our men in Havana: US used young Latinos to foment revolutionary moods in Cuba

The US secretly sent young Latinos to Cuba to trigger the political unrest, says a new leaked report. The ‘traveling spies’ working undercover within health and civic programs were put in danger as there was no safety net if they had been caught.

The ‘travelers’
project was launched in Cuba back in October 2009 by the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) , best known for
overseeing billions of dollars in US humanitarian aid. It was
secretly dispatching Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian young
people to the island nation, said an AP investigation. The
American authorities hoped that these people would help to
provoke a revolution in the country.

Young Latinos often posed as tourists. They traveled across the
country and recruited people whom they believed they could turn
into political activists.

Another US attempt to spy on the neighboring country was from an
HIV-prevention workshop, which is labeled by memos obtained by AP
as "the perfect excuse" for the program's political
goals.

AP also found some interesting documents revealing how the
members of the program were communicating. They used encrypted
memory sticks to hide their files and sent encrypted messages.

The ‘travelers’ used innocent content on their laptops
so that they wouldn’t be suspected by Cuban authorities.

When they wrote "I have a headache," it meant they
suspected they were being monitored by the Cuban government.
"Your sister is ill" meant they wanted to cut their trip
short.

"We worked it so that the government here didn't know we were
traveling to Cuba and helping these groups," Yajaira
Andrade, a former administrator with a Venezuelan organization,
told AP, "because that was when [President Hugo] Chavez was
in power, and if he had known about us - that some Venezuelans
were working to stir rebellion - we would have been thrown in
jail."

However, according to AP investigation, the workers almost failed
their task to "identify potential social-change actors."
According to one of the Latin American agents, they got a
30-minute seminar on how to evade Cuban intelligence. He added
that there was no safety net for inexperienced workers if they
were caught by Cuban authorities.

"Although there is never total certainty, trust that the
authorities will not try to harm you physically, only frighten
you," read a memo obtained by the AP. "Remember that the
Cuban government prefers to avoid negative media reports abroad,
so a beaten foreigner is not convenient for them."

The ‘spying’ program went on even after the scandalous
arrest of Alan Gross, a US international development
professional. He was arrested while in Cuba working as a US
government subcontractor for USAID in December 2009 and is now
serving his 15-year term in one of Cuban prisons.

"We value your safety," one senior USAID official said
in an email.

"The guidance applies to ALL travelers to the island, not
just American citizens," another official said.

According to AP files, one contractor commented on the arrest of
Alan Gross.

"They arrested a contractor from another agency. That could
be dangerous," one Skype message cited by AP read.
"Thank God he's not one of ours."

In the meantime, AP wrote several questions to UNAIDS to clear
the situation with ‘Cuban spying’.

While Creative Associates declined to comment, USAID said that
the US bodies helped the Cuban people “to determine their
future.”

“USAID and the Obama administration are committed to
supporting the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their
own future," the agency told AP. "USAID works with
independent youth groups in Cuba on community service projects,
public health, the arts and other opportunities to engage
publicly, consistent with democracy programs worldwide."

Another HIV workshop program had a dual purpose, added USAID.

It "enabled support for Cuban civil society while providing a
secondary benefit of addressing the desire Cubans expressed for
information and training about HIV prevention," it told AP.

US intelligence also didn’t bother to pay much money to the spies
who worked in such conditions. According to AP obtained data, a
dozen of Latin Americans were paid less than $5.41 an hour.

The data shows that USAIDS’s contractor Creative Associates
International even used the relatives of the young spies to carry
cash for them. However, the families of the contractors were not
aware that the funds were from the US authorities.

The revelations about US spying program come after another
scandal: ‘Cuban Twitter’, the messaging program launched
by the US in Cuba which was intended to undermine the country's
government. Both Cuban Twitter and the travelers program were
funded by USAID.

The Cuban Twitter scandal broke on April 3 this year, when AP
revealed documents saying that the US engineered a text messaging
network in Cuba to try and spread unrest in the communist
country. More than 40,000 people, unaware that the network was
created by the US government, were sharing news and opinions
using the service.

The initial plan was to gain users by allowing access to light
news stories, such as baseball bulletins, music and weather
updates. However, once a critical number of subscribers was
reached, operators would introduce political stories aimed at
tarnishing the reputation of the Cuban government, with the aim
of creating a ‘Cuban Spring’.